Cookie Notice

Last updated: September 12, 2018

This Cookie Notice explains how Confluent, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, “Confluent”, “we”, “us”, and “ours”) use cookies and similar technologies to recognize you when you visit our websites at https://confluent.io and https://kafka-summit.org (“Websites”). It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners in order to make their websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.

Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, Confluent) are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third party cookies”. Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website (e.g., advertising, interactive content, and analytics). The parties that set these third party cookies can recognize your computer both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites.

Why do we use cookies?

We use first party and third party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Websites to operate. We refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. Other cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Websites. Third parties serve cookies through our Websites for advertising, analytics, and other purposes. This is described in more detail below.

The specific types of first and third party cookies served through our Websites and the purposes they perform are described in the table below:

Types of cookie

Who serves these cookies

How to refuse

Essential website cookies: These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our Websites and use of our services and to use some of their features, such as access to secure areas.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Websites to you, you cannot refuse them.

You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings as described below under the heading “How can I control cookies?”.

Performance and functionality cookies: These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Websites and services but are non-essential to their use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality (like chat) may become unavailable.

These cookies may be blocked through changing your browser settings; please note that Pingdom is used for security purposes.

To manage your browser settings, please follow the instructions below under the heading “How can I control cookies?”.

Analytics and customization cookies: These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our Websites and services are being used, how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to customize our Websites and services for you.

Advertising cookies: These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

Social networking cookies: These cookies are used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on our Websites and services through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes too.

Cookies are not the only way to recognize or track visitors to a website. We may use other, similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called “tracking pixels” or “clear gifs”). These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognize when someone has visited our Websites, clicked certain links, or opened an e-mail that we have sent them. This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our Websites to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our Websites from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of e-mail marketing campaigns. In many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly, and so declining cookies will impair their functioning.

Do you serve targeted advertising?

Third parties may serve cookies on your computer or mobile device to serve advertising through our Websites. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services that you may be interested in. They may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements. This can be accomplished by them using cookies or web beacons to collect information about your visits to this and other sites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services of potential interest to you. The information collected through this process does not enable us or them to identify your name, contact details or other personally identifying details unless you choose to provide these.

How can I control cookies?

You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies. You can exercise your cookie preferences by clicking on the appropriate opt-out links provided in the cookie table above.

You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our Websites though your access to some functionality and areas of our Websites may be restricted. As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser to browser, you should visit your browser’s help menu for more information.

Some Internet browsers include the ability to transmit “Do Not Track” signals. The Websites do not currently process or respond to “Do Not Track” signals. To learn more about “Do Not Track”, please visit “All About Do Not Track”.

In addition to “Do Not Track”, there are many ways that web browser signals and similar mechanisms can indicate your tracking choices, and we may not be aware of nor honor every mechanism.

How often will you update this Cookie Notice?

We may update this Cookie Notice from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Please visit this Cookie Notice regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.

The date at the top of this Cookie Notice indicates when it was last updated.

Where can I get further information?

If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies, please email us at privacy@confluent.io.